The Tissue Core of the SPORE is responsible for accessioning and processing new biospecimens and to make them available for use in the four SPORE translational research projects and as needed for the Developmental Research and Career Developmental Programs. The Tissue Core will provide sample accessioning and pathology support for the early phase clinical trials as needed in these projects. The Tissue Core Director and Co-Director are highly experienced pancreatic pathologists. Biospecimens will also be made available to other intra- and extra-mural investigators engaged in pancreatic cancer translational research. Requests for biospecimens will be reviewed by the Biospecimen Access Committee for Pancreatic Cancer (BACPaC), with consideration given primarily to scientific merit and availability of specimens and their associated data needed for analysis. Input from the Biostatistics and Clinical Research Core is included in the evaluation of requests for tissues. The pathologists in the Tissue Core will provide detailed annotations in the SPORE's pancreatic cancer tissue database for frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues of all available patients who have been resected for pancreatic cancer at Mayo Clinic. The pathologists will also interpret IHC staining and provide other pathology support such as evaluating pancreas samples from transgenic or knockout mouse models. The Tissue Core will coordinate with the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Biospecimen Accessioning and Processing (BAP) Shared Resource to process blood samples to provide genomic DNA and serum aliquots, and with the Pathology Research Core (PRC) Shared Resource to provide histology and other tissue-based services, including paraffin and frozen sectioning, immunohistochemistry, tissue microarray construction, and digital imaging. Working closely with existing infrastructure such as these shared resources minimizes redundancy of services and utilizes existing experience and state of the art equipment.

Public Health Relevance

The Tissue Core provides the biospecimens (frozen tissue, FFPE tissue, tissue microarrays and cell line microarrays, blood, serum, DNA, and RNA), pathology annotations, histological services, and pathology support necessary to support the projects of the Mayo Clinic SPORE in Pancreatic Cancer. These services are essential to advance the research mission of the SPORE.